Head Tale

So there’s a mini-scandal blowing up after it was revealed that Justin Trudeau has not one but two nannies on his payroll.

Liberals and other defenders have been quick to point out that the number of people on Trudeau’s personal staff (6) is no different than Stephen Harper’s.   Or that Trudeau has arguably the most important job in the country so you’d expect him to get all the supports he needs so he can focus on that job – no different than having a chef or a driver or whatever.

I actually agree with all of that – I have no issue with *a* Prime Minister having all the supports needed to best do their job.  My issue is with *this* Prime Minister who is, once again, during his short time in office, proving himself to be a major hypocrite.

Trudeau is only months removed from taking his own stand on family assistance. In opposing the former Conservative government’s Universal Child Care Benefit, Trudeau argued that such a tax break shouldn’t be going to “wealthy” families like his and Stephen Harper’s. “My family qualified for about $3,000, even though we’re doing very well and didn’t need it,” Trudeau told Chatelaine in September. Trudeau went further than criticizing the policy—he promised to donate his family’s amount to a charity in his riding that supported vulnerable women during pregnancy and motherhood.  (via MacLeans)

After campaigning very publicly on not needing public support for childcare (let alone having a party policy on national childcare like the NDP did), he suddenly thinks he’s somehow different than all the other hardworking Canadians who *also* could benefit from publicly subsidized childcare – from a young couple who just make enough not to qualify for low-income subsidies to a middle class nurse and librarian with two kids to a doctor in the same tax bracket as Trudeau that hires a nanny but pays out-of-pocket for this privilege?

It all seems a bit rich now, if you’ll excuse the expression, considering Justin Trudeau will probably be the only person earning over $334,000 to have his childcare paid for by the taxpayer. Under the Liberals’ Canada Child Benefit, which will replace the UCCB, the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement, Canadian families earning around $200,000 will receive no money from the government, whereas those parents would have collected about $1,425 for one child under the Conservatives. (via National Post)

When Trudeau was so outspoken about not needing child support during the campaign, what did he expect to happen if he won?  But he didn’t add a “unless I’m elected” caveat to his grand statements about how he didn’t need the taxpayer to provide childcare for him and his wife.  Not a great testament to his political instincts.

And as I said off the top, this is really a mini-scandal in isolation.  But I think part of the reason it’s blown up is people are already starting to see repeated differences between what Trudeau says and does – he says he’ll have gender parity in his cabinet but turns out that’s an optical illusion in actual numbers, in giving some women lesser portfolios than men, and also much less say on important committees where the real work is done. He says he’ll bring in 25,000 refugees by the end of the year but that turns into 10,000 (again, the more realistic number the NDP campaigned on all along.)

Hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy.

My biggest worry is that one of the “grand statements” Trudeau seems so fond of making are going to backfire with serious real world consequences for Canada.